Monday, December 23, 2013

We closed out the 2013 Arkansas high school football season last weekend by crowning state champions in 2A, 3A, and 4A. In 2A, the Junction City Dragons proved to everyone in the classification that they are the best team in the state. The Dragons jumped on the Des Arc Eagles early and often, and they will start next season riding a 27-game winning streak. Their last loss was the 2012 season opener against Earle. In 3A, the Charleston Tigers completed a 15-0 season with a convincing victory over the Glen Rose Beavers. The Tigers dominated district play and were never really tested in the playoffs. In 4A, the Booneville Bearcats also completed a perfect 15-0 season with a hard fought, foul-weather plagued win over the Warren Lumberjacks. The Bearcats will drop down in classification next year and will do so by letting the entire 3A class know that the title runs through Booneville in 2014. We will publish our traditional state champions helmet salute in a few days.

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Warren is finally back to the championship game. Warren is annually a top 5 preseason pick and often a favorite to be on top at the end, but they have been snake bit several times over the years including their loss to Nashville in the 2006 state championship that is still disputed by many Lumberjack faithful. After starting the season 0-3 with losses to top higher classification teams in Fayetteville, Pulaski Academy, and Camden Fairview, the Lumberjacks have reeled off 11 straight victories by an average score of 42-12. This is not the same type Coach Bo Hembree offense that we saw win two straight championships in 2001 and 2002. They are much more balanced, but they will still beat you with the big play. As good as this team is on offense, we think their defense may be the underrated part of this team. They held an Arkadelphia team that averaged 48 points per game to a season low of 24.

Warren's opponent will be Booneville, giving us a rematch of the 2001 state championship game that some might argue was the beginning of the domination of the spread in this classification that we have seen in this classification. It seemed to be an "out with the old, in with the new" game that was an instant classic that saw Warren passing attack outlast the running attack of the Bearcats, 45-39.

Booneville has a statement to make as they will leave class 4A and drop down to class 3A for the foreseeable future. Still running the flex bone offense, still a hard-hitting defense, and still some of the toughest, hard-nosed dudes in the state, these Bearcats are ready to leave 4A with a bang. They are undefeated on the season averaging 40 points while allowing just 12. While these spread teams are putting up their points across the state, Booneville has quietly been dominating with old-school football in West Arkansas. The biggest knock on Booneville in the past has been their inability to keep up with the speed of the south teams and their pass defense. We think this year they have debunked that myth and will be able to keep up with Warren.

BOONEVILLE 31, WARREN 28.

3A State Championship - Charleston vs Glen Rose

It's a true battle of heavyweights as neither team has even played a close game in 3 months as both have dominated their opponents by about 30 points per game each. There is no score comparison to do with these two as they both mercy ruled their only common opponent, Benton Harmony Grove. We could measure strength of schedule and who is more battle tested, but none of that really matters in a state championship game. These two teams did lock up last year in the playoffs that saw the Beavers win in Charleston, 31-28. In the end, we think it comes down to the QB position, and the arguably the best QB in Arkansas resides in Charleston, Ty Storey.

CHARLESTON 42, GLEN ROSE 28

2A State Championship - Des Arc vs Junction City

The 2A State Championship features most peoples' preseason #1 in Junction City, and a team that didn't even crack the top 10 in Fearless Friday's RPS until week 7 and not until week 10 by Hooten's Arkansas Football. However, they have slayed two members of the 2A-8 already in Strong and Bearden. There is no truth the rumor that they will be given the 2A-8 conference championship trophy to hoist alongside their state championship trophy if they win on Saturday.

This game is a rematch of the 2008 state championship game that saw Junction City kick a field goal to win, 10-8. Many fans love the underdog and would love to see Des Arc pull this one out, but it's really hard to slay a dragon.

Monday, December 16, 2013

We have 3 new state champions to congratulate after this weekend's action. The Bentonville Tigers ended the Cabot Panthers bid for a perfect season in 7A. The El Dorado Wildcats defeated the Pine Bluff Zebras in a re-match of an earlier game. In 5A, the Morrilton Devil Dogs denied the Batesville Pioneers a state title for the second year in a row.

The state finals are now set for 2A, 3A, and 4A. The 3A bracket is the only of the three that does not have a surprise state finalist. We will publish our state championship previews later in the week.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

UPDATE on 12/4/2013
The severe storm hitting Arkansas has caused the Arkansas Activities Association to postpone all games by one week. The football season will effectively be extended by a week to insure safe travel conditions exists for the teams and fans. The dates below have been adjusted accordingly.

This week is the 2013 championship week for classes 5A, 6A, and 7A in Arkansas high school football. The 3 lower classifications are playing semi-final rounds. The semi-final games will all be played at 7:00 pm on Friday, December 13. The championship games are played in War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock at the times show below.

Previews
In 5A, Batesville is playing in its third straight state final game after getting very little respect during the regular season. Both Camden Fairview and Pulaski Academy held down the #1 ranking in 5A until week #13 of the season. The Pioneers will be taking on a Morrilton team that has steadily improved each week. These teams have 3 common opponents: Nettleton, Greenbrier, and Alma. Batesville and Morrilton both easily handled Nettleton and Greenbrier. Batesville defeated Alma last week in a tight 31-28 game while Morrilton lost to Alma early in the conference season, 22-14. All these factors tell us to expect a close championship game. We think that Batesville will carry home the hardware on the basis of the state championship experience of the last two years.

The 6A championship game features two teams that are not strangers to this spotlight. Pine Bluff returns to the finals after ending Greenwood's 50-game winning streak last week. The Zebras were one of those victims in the 2012 6A championship game and are looking for their first state title since 1995. El Dorado won 3 consecutive 6A championships in 2009 - 2011. These teams met in conference play with the Wildcats winning at home over Pine Bluff, 21-14. However, the Zebras turned the ball over 7 times in that game. Again, we expect a tight game and nerves shouldn't be a factor given the postseason experience of both teams. We look for Pine Bluff to take care of the ball better than they did in the previous game and win its first state title in 18 years.

The 7A championships has a match-up of the two teams we picked to win the title (Cabot - Russ; Bentonville - Adam). Bentonville is undefeated against teams from the state of Arkansas as its 2 losses were in non-conference games against teams from Oklahoma and Texas. It has been quite some time since a non-7A West Arkansas team has beaten these Tigers. Cabot has its power Dead-T offense rolling this year as the Panthers have imposed their will against every opponent this season. Cabot will test Bentonville physically and use a patient attack to move the ball. [NOTE: We describe Cabot's style of play in Saturday Morning Wake-Up Call. You can get the eBook for just $0.99 if you use coupon code XK88N at Smashwords.] All signs point to this game being an absolute slugfest - fans might want to bring the "big boy pants" to watch this one. Fans of the old style football with huddles and power running will enjoy this game on Friday evening.

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Last Friday, Week #3 of the 2013 Arkansas high school football playoffs was completed. The big surprise of the evening was Greenwood's loss to Pine Bluff on a 47 yard field goal. The win by Zebras ended a 50 game winning streak. The Bulldogs will be looking to start a new one next year. Junction City was the only team to top 50 points in Week #3 playoff action.

The scores in BLUE below are ones that we correctly picked the winner while they those in RED were misses. For the week, we were 13 of 18 (72.2%). For the playoffs, we are 87 of 116 (75%).